Yeah, I know I said we weren't going to be back until tomorrow, but
we've gotten a couple of pieces of DVD-related information that are
just too good to sit on until then.

First of all, there's good news and bad news about the release of
the weekend's Live 8 event on
DVD. EMI
has officially obtained the DVD release rights to the biggest
ever live concert event, and they'll be releasing it on disc in
November. That's the good news. The bad news, unfortunately, is that
they plan to tailor each DVD release to the country they're
releasing it in... meaning that the U.S. DVD will include more of
the Philadelphia concert than anything else, the UK release will
include more of the London concert than anything else, etc.
Personally, as a music fan, I want EVERYTHING! EVERY performance
from EVERY Live 8 concert, not
just highlights selected by some record company marketing flak.
There ought to be one mega-badass ultimate box set that you can buy
to get it all. Then, if EMI wants to sell single or double-disc
'highlights' sets, great. I don't know about you, but watching Live
8 on VH1 and MTV was an unbelievably frustrating
experience. You'd just get into a performance, and then they'd cut
away to barely-out-of-their-teens VJs bantering inanely with each
other or with people in the crowd thusly:

Young Hot Babe VJ: "So what brought you
here to Live 8 in Philly today?"

Young Hot Babe VJ: "Right on! Okay, now here's thirty seconds
of Elton John from earlier in London..."

Let's hope the DVD release makes a better showing. The Pink Floyd
reunion at least was cool. However, speaking of reunions (that
should have been), if I have to see Sting aggressively jamming old
Police tunes again without Stewart and Andy behind him... grrrr.

The other news today... and this is GREAT news... comes from
a
recent BBC Radio 4 interview with Dirk Maggs, the producer of
the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
radio series (the Tertiary,
Quandary and Quintessential
phases). These new episodes continue the radio series from where the
original Primary and Secondary
phases left off back in the 1980s, dramatizing the books Life,
the Universe and Everything, So
Long and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly
Harmless. They feature most of the original voice cast
(along with surprises like Douglas Adams himself playing Agrajag),
and were broadcast in the UK earlier this year. For those who can't
wait, the complete series is now available on stereo CD (click the
images below to purchase the series on CD from Amazon.uk). FYI, The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Collector's Edition
contains the Primary and Secondary
phases, along with Douglas Adams's Guide
to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The other three
CDs contain the new Tertiary,
Quandary and Quintessential
phases, each with 20-40 minutes of material that wasn't broadcast in
the UK.

But the cool thing is, 5.1 mixes of all of these episodes were
prepared as well. According to Maggs, they'll likely be released in
high-resolution DVD-Audio format later in 2005. Can you imagine the
complete Hitchhiker's Guide in
5.1 surround sound? Very cool! You can read more at the
BBC
Radio 4's official Hitchhiker's site, and at the
website for Above
the Title (the company that produced the new episodes).

Okay, that's all for today. See you back here tomorrow. Stay tuned!

(LATE UPDATE -
7/1/05 - 3 PM PDT)

How about a fun little surprise to leave you with before we sign
off for the long holiday weekend? From retail sources in Europe, we
bring you a sneak peek at the cover artwork for both the 2-disc and
4-disc versions of Paramount's Titanic:
Special Collector's Edition, tentatively due on 10/18.
Keep in mind, this is early international art (note the Fox logo).
The U.S. domestic release will be from Paramount, and the final
cover art could (and probably will) differ. Here you go...

Have a great weekend! Stay tuned...

(EARLY UPDATE - 7/1/05
- 1:30 PM PDT)

Welcome to July, everyone! Happy Canada Day to all you North of the
border Bits readers out there.

We've got a little bit of news for you this afternoon. First of
all, 20th Century Fox has officially announced the DVD release of
Fever Pitch on 9/13 (SRP
$29.98). The DVD will include the film in both anamorphic widescreen
and full frame video, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Extras will
include audio commentary by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, 13 deleted
scenes, a gag reel, the Love Triangle
and Break the Curse Internet
featurettes, the Fox Movie Channel
Presents Making a Scene: Fever Pitch featurette and
theatrical trailers.

Warner has announced a new TV release that some of you will be
excited about. Veronica Mars: The
Complete First Season will street on 10/11 (SRP $59.98).
The 6-disc set will include all of the show's first season episodes
in anamorphic widescreen video, plus extras TBA.

You'll also be excited to learn that Universal has revealed, on a
couple of their new DVD releases (including the recent Casino:
Special Edition), that The Dude will be back in high
style later in 2005. The studio will debut a very long-awaited The
Big Lebowski: Special Edition sometime later this year. I
have it from reliable sources that the new edition will include
featurette coverage of the recent
Lebowski
Fest West celebration here in L.A. (where I'm told a good
time was had by all... including actor Jeff Bridges). By the way,
you Bits-ers in the Louisville, KY area will be glad to know that
the 4th
Annual Lebowski Fest will be held there later this month (July
22nd-24th). There will be bowling, White Russians and what-have-you.
How can you turn that down? Click on the links for all the details.

Consider this tidbit seriously Rumor
Mill-worthy, but
an
Italian online DVD retailer has posted possible early details
on a little of what you can expect from Lucasfilm and Fox's DVD
release of Star Wars: Episode III -
Revenge of the Sith in November. According to the site,
look for the 2-disc set to include 2 behind-the-scenes
featurettes/documentaries, 5 deleted scenes, a music video,
theatrical trailers, 12 TV spots, a production photo gallery,
DVD-ROM weblinks to an exclusive Star
Wars.com site, an Episode III
videogame trailer and a playable Battlefront
II game demo. We suspect there will also be audio
commentary. Watch for official details to emerge soon from
Lucasfilm, with an anticipated street date for the release of either
11/1 or 11/8.

Word has come in over the last few weeks of the passing of a number
of entertainment figures we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge.
These include
Dana
Elcar (of MacGyver and
Baa Baa Black Sheep fame),
Ed
Bishop and Michael Billington (both of whom starred together
in Gerry Anderson's 1969 series UFO),
Paul
Winchell (the voice of Tigger from the animated Winnie
the Pooh) and others. All will be missed.

Around The Bits today, we
have a great new
Artist
of the Month for you all to check out. Alison
Relyea-Parr is an award-winning children's book
illustrator who's well known back in my old stomping grounds of
Madison, Wisconsin, having attended UW-M. I think you'll really be
impressed and inspired by her artwork and her talent in general. Be
sure to visit
her
artist page here at The Bits
and her own
website as well.

Finally today, we recommend that you all check out
the Live 8
concert event that's going to be held all day tomorrow in 10
cities around the world. Organized by Bob Geldof, Bono and others to
benefit African relief efforts, it will be carried live on both VH1
and MTV, as well as BBC One, Two and Three, plus it will be heard
over broadcast and satellite radio, and you can even watch online at
AOL Music.
Simultaneous concerts will be held in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome,
Philadelphia, Barrie, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Moscow. Dozens of
leading bands and artists will participate, including U2, REM,
Sting, Madonna, Coldplay, Keane and many more, including a number of
great regional acts. The highlight is expected to be the
long-awaited reunion of Pink Floyd - no kidding. It's for a great
cause and it should be a lot of fun, so don't miss it. And be sure
to sign
the list to add your name to the chorus of voices demanding an
end to poverty and suffering in Africa.

Okay, that's it for today. We'll be back on Tuesday with a number
of new DVD reviews. We'll also have an update on our Comic-Con
DVD Producers Panel as well.

Our best to all of you out there... and to our American readers, we
wish you a great and safe Fourth of July holiday!

We've got a couple things for you here in the wee early hours of
Thursday morning.

First of all, paint me surprised... but War
of the Worlds does not, in fact, suck. Actually, it's
pretty damn great. Matt and I (along with our wives, of course)
caught a late screening of the new Steven Spielberg film yesterday,
and we were both fairly well blown away.

Now... I say that as someone who's been very disappointed by
Spielberg in the last few years, particularly in his attempts at
science fiction. I really disliked both Minority
Report and A.I.: Artificial
Intelligence, which I believe suffered from Spielberg's
tendency to play at darker, edgier storytelling, yet be a little too
cute with special effects and force happy endings. I also think
Spielberg has a tendency (in recent years) to TELL you how you're
supposed to feel during his films, rather than simply make you feel
that way. So going into War of the Worlds,
while I had very high expectations of the material, my expectations
of the film's director were exceedingly low. Don't even get me
started on Tom Cruise, faux-M.D., and all his recent Scientology
mumbo jumbo. Hey man... I've suffered through Battlefield
Earth on film AND in print. Cruise can say that
psychiatry is pseudo science until he's blue in the face. I say,
anyone who subscribes to a religion concocted by L. Ron Hubbard
SHOULD have their head examined. Bit of trivia for you: Did you know
Scientology teaches its followers that human beings (all of us, you
and me) are possessed by the evil spirits of million-year-old aliens
called Thetans? Aliens, as in from outer space? Pseudo science
indeed. Cruise is perilously close to becoming Hollywood's new
Brando-esque eccentric.

But I digress. Anyway, imagine my surprise to discover that War
of the Worlds is genuinely dark, riviting and unsettling.
Spielberg pulls few punches and he doesn't explain every twist and
turn. He doesn't hold your hand and make you feel like everything
will be all right. He scares you, he creeps you out, he shocks you a
bit... and then he does it again. Only once, at the very end of the
film, is he unable to resist getting a little sugary, giving you a
concluding moment that's hard to believe is possible given what
you've just seen. Thankfully, I'd enjoyed what I'd just seen so much
that I was willing to let it slip. War of
the Worlds is classic, 1950s Sci-Fi given serious
treatment, infused with a modern thriller sensibility and just the
right post-9/11 edge. Rather than presenting us an epic-scaled, ID4-style
perspective, we see (and at times even more frighteningly DON'T see)
the events strictly from the point of view of a largely dead-beat
dad, who is desperately trying to save his two kids from something
he doesn't understand (kids who, understandably, don't seem to like
him very much at first). The result is a personal and viscerally
disturbing assault on the senses. It had me gripping the arms of my
theater seat until its final moments... despite the fact that, based
on the source material, I already knew how it would ultimately end.
Even Cruise delivers his best everyman performance - at least good
enough to make me forget his recent rantings about Katie Holmes and
antidepressants for 116 minutes. This may not be a complex film, but
it's relentless and almost entirely uncompromising. Frankly, I
didn't think Spielberg had a flick like this left in him. It's
easily his best work since Saving Private
Ryan. My grade: A-

Okay... we've got some of those reviews we promised you. Get
this... our own Todd Doogan's checked in with a look at Image
Entertainment's
The
Twilight Zone: The Definitive Seasons 1 & 2 on disc.
Yes, THAT Todd Doogan. Did you forget who he was? Well, he's back
and (maybe) to stay. He just celebrated a birthday too, so
drop him an e-mail
and tell him how much you've missed him.

We'll be back with Barrie's latest edition of Classic
Coming Attractions later this morning, featuring still
more new DVD reviews.

Stay tuned!

(LATE UPDATE - 6/29/05
- 4 PM PDT)

Okay... we've got a bunch of new announcements to run down, so here
goes...

First of all, we've learned that all 14 films in Universal's Alfred
Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection (due on 10/4), will
be digitally remastered. The set will be packaged in velvet
slip-case, featuring a 36-page collectible book. It will also
contain an exclusive bonus disc that contains "showcasing
Hitchcock's films, career and legacy."

Universal will also release single-disc versions of E.T.
The Extra-Terrestrial, Cape
Fear (1991) and Monty Python's
The Meaning of Life on 8/23, It's
All About Love on 9/13 (SRP $29.98), Satan's
Little Helper on 10/4, Unleashed
on 10/11, and a 3-movie Brat Pack
Collection on 11/1 (including The
Breakfast Club, Sixteen
Candles and Weird Science).

One last title from Universal - look for Wallace
& Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures on 9/20 (SRP
$19.99). The title will include A Grand
Day Out, The Wrong Trousers
and A Close Shave, along with
the never-before-seen Cracking
Contraptions shorts and a sneak peek at the upcoming
theatrical movie Wallace & Gromit:
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (due in theaters 9/30).

We've learned that Touchstone's The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (due on 9/13) will
include deleted scenes, a commentary track and a "making-of"
featurette. We're guessing you can expect a more elaborate special
edition at a later date. At least one would certainly hope. By the
way, the film will street on UMD format on 9/13 as well (our
UMD
Movies for PSP Release List has been updated accordingly).

Disney will release Mindhunters
on 9/20 (SRP $29.99).

Warner Bros. has announced The
Adventures of Superman: The Complete First Season for
release on 10/18 (SRP $39.98). The 5-disc set will include all 26
first-season episodes of the classic, 1950s series, which starred
George Reeves. You'll find the cover art below.

Warner has also announced The Fresh
Prince of Bel-Air: The Complete Second Season for release
on 10/11. You can also expect the studio to release The
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on 9/20.

New Line has announced a 2-disc Monster-in-Law:
Platinum Series DVD for release on 8/30 (SRP $28.98).

Finally, look for Sony to release 3-Iron,
Ace in the Hole, Battlefield
Diaries, Cirque du Soleil:
Midnight Sun, Giuseppe Verdi's
Rigoletto Story, Gunslinger's
Revenge, Nero, The
Marksman, Last Frontier,
Man in the Saddle, Santa
Fe, Ten Wanted Men,
The Lawless Street, The
Longest Drive, The Stranger
Wore a Gun and a double-feature DVD of The
Boogeyman (1980) and The
Return of the Boogeyman (1994), all on 9/20.

We've got a bit of new DVD cover art for you as well today. Here's
Universal's To Kill a Mockingbird: Legacy
Series (9/6) and Inside Deep
Throat: NC-17 Version (9/20), and Warner's The
Adventures of Superman: The Complete First Season...

We'll be back with some DVD reviews in a few hours. Stay tuned...

(EARLY UPDATE -
6/29/05 - 12:01 AM PDT)

We're back! I trust you all had a great weekend and are having a
decent week thus far. Ours was fun, but exhausting (as it always
tends to be when family and friends visit). There were long days,
whirlwind tours, we ate too much good food, etc. You know the drill.
Still, a good time was had by all (including Sarah and I), and
that's what counts.

This will be one of several posts today, as we catch you all up on
the latest DVD news. There were a couple of big things that happened
while we were away, thus this initial early update.

First up, Microsoft (in a not so unexpected move) has officially
taken sides in the HD-DVD/Blu-ray Disc format war, joining forces
with HD-DVD camp leader Toshiba. Microsoft and Toshiba have
announced that the two companies will jointly develop HD-DVD
hardware together. You can read more
here
from AP (via Yahoo). The announcement was made at a joint press
conference in Tokyo by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Toshiba
president Atsutoshi Nishida.

Also, in a bit of film news (and in case you haven't seen it yet),
the teaser trailer for Peter Jackson's King
Kong remake
is
now online in Quicktime format. It's pretty damn cool. The
Universal film hits theaters in December.

Finally, our friends over at
TVShowsonDVD
have learned that Universal's Battlestar
Galactica: Season 1 (which we mentioned
here
last week) will be a Best Buy exclusive title on DVD starting on
7/26. The set will SRP for $69.99 and will not be available from
other retailers until 9/20, giving Best Buy a 2-month exclusive
period. Wonder how much they paid Universal for that?

Okay, back later with more news and DVD reviews too. Stay tuned...

6/24/05

There's big DVD release news today. As we first posted in
The
Rumor Mill a couple weeks ago, Touchstone and Buena Vista
have confirmed that The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy will street on 9/13 (SRP $29.99). We
expect official word on the extras in the next few days. In the
meantime, here's a look at the cover art...

As you can see, we've also posted cover art for the Discovery
Channel's Alien Planet (due on
8/16 from Sony) and Touchstone's Pretty
Woman: 15th Anniversary Special Edition (8/30).

And that's it for another week. Just to let you know, we're going
to be dark on Monday and Tuesday (barring any major announcements
that we'll try to check in with). Sarah and I are going to be
visiting with family, so you know... analog life takes priority. But
we'll be back on Wednesday morning with a brand new column from our
own Barrie Maxwell and lots more.

So have a great weekend, thanks for your patience and we'll see you
back here on Wednesday!

Well played CNN... well played. I guess that means you California
readers can rest easy. Just in case though, your copy of The
Digital Bits: Insider's Guide to DVD can be used as a
floatation device. See? We got yer back, baby. We got yer back.

Okay... on to business today. We've just posted a review of the
indie horror film
Ghost
Lake on DVD, from Velocity Home Entertainment. It's a
surprisingly decent little package on disc. Do check it out.

There's a big DVD announcement today: Universal has announced a
15-disc Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece
Collection for 10/4 (SRP $119.98). The set will include
The Birds, Family
Plot, Frenzy, The
Man Who Knew Too Much, Marnie,
Psycho, Rear
Window, Rope, Saboteur,
Shadow of a Doubt, Topaz,
Torn Curtain, The
Trouble with Harry and Vertigo,
along with a bonus disc of special features (many of the movie discs
will feature bonus material as well). We're waiting to see how many
(if any) of these films will be remastered on DVD. Vertigo,
for example, has been released previously on disc only in
non-anamorphic widescreen. We'll let you know when we know.

Universal has also announced the Inside
Deep Throat documentary for release on 9/20 (SRP $27.98).
Video will be anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
The film will be released in separate R and NC-17 versions. Extras
will include The Binghamton Trial:
Cliterally Speaking, Beverly
Hills: Holly Gets Wood, Quincy
House: Poison Ivy League, Princeton:
Throat Deep in the Suburbs, Cut
Throat: Where in the World is Bobby De Salvo?, Harry
Reems' Athletic Club, The
Tucson Trial: When Gerry Met Annie, The
Zen of Deep Throat, Linda Does
Hollywood, The Legends of
Erotica: Remembering Linda, Fire
Dance with Me, Women Against
Pornography, Linda's Exit:
What's the Big Deal? and The
Last Word for Now featurettes, audio commentary with
directors Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, and the theatrical
trailer.

Also, Funimation and Gonzo will release the first DVD volume of the
anime series Akira Kurosawa's Samurai 7
on 8/23 (SRP $29.98). A limited edition version will also be
available (SRP $49.98) that will include a collector's library case
(to hold the complete series on DVD) along with 4 storyboard books
(for episodes 1-4).

Stay tuned...

(LATE UPDATE - 6/22/05
- 5:30 PM PDT)

Well, I've got some good news for you fans of Star
Trek: Enterprise today. Ever since it was announced that
the series was finally going to be released on DVD by Paramount,
I've been getting deluged by fans asking one question incessantly.
It has to do with the third season episode, Harbinger,
and it goes like this: Will the uncensored version of the episode
appear on the DVD release, or will we get the censored version that
was broadcast in most parts of the U.S.? For those who don't already
know what this is about, the episode featured a short love scene in
which a portion of a female character's bare butt is briefly scene
on screen (the character in question was T'Pol). Canadian viewers
and U.S. viewers in New York saw the original, uncensored version of
the scene, but for the rest of the U.S., UPN altered the shot in
question by digitally 'zooming' the image to crop out said buttocks.
The episode originally aired on February 11th, 2004... just two
weeks after CBS incurred the wrath of some audience members when
singer Janet Jackson "accidentally" exposed a breast on
live TV during her Superbowl halftime performance. UPN and CBS are
(or were until
the
recent split) both Viacom subsidiaries. But fans of the series
(and Vulcan bottoms) on DVD can rest easy... we've confirmed with
Paramount that Star Trek: Enterprise -
The Complete Third Season (due on 9/20) will include the
original, unaltered version of the scene.

In other DVD news today, Lions Gate has announced the release of
Crash for 9/6 (SRP $28.98).
The film is absolutely a must-see (you can read my comments on it
from a couple of weeks ago
here).

Universal has announced The Best of Bud
Abbott and Lou Costello: Volume 4 for release on 10/4
(SRP $26.98). This fourth and final set will include Abbott
and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Abbott
and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld, Abbott
and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, Abbott
and Costello Meet the Mummy and The
World of Abbott and Costello.

Also, Velocity Home Entertainment will release the documentary Born
Into Brothels on 9/20 (SRP $29.99).

One last thing this afternoon - it has nothing to do with DVD, but
I was just astonished when I saw it, so I'll be damned if I wasn't
going to point it out to you guys. If it wasn't so shockingly
irresponsible, it would be awfully funny. Check out
this
story at CNN.com. It posted in their 'Science &
Space' section and written by someone named KC Wildmoon. Now... I
don't know who KC Wildmoon is, but he or she apparently got their
education in science by reading comic books and watching B-grade
Sci-Fi flicks. Here's the first paragraph of the story, posted on
the site in bold text:

"ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Earthquakes
on the West Coast have prompted fresh speculation about "the
big one" -- a quake that could dump a huge section of
California into the sea."

Can any of you out there tell me what's wrong with that statement?
Anyone?

"Um... it's not physically possible for California to fall
into the sea, is it?"

DING, DING, DING!!

The idea that any part of California is going to break off and fall
into the Pacific Ocean due to a major earthquake is a completely
absurd urban legend - rather like people saying that we never walked
on the Moon. Sure, it was cool in Superman:
The Movie and NBC's 10.5
(okay... NOTHING about 10.5
was cool), but it's just a bunch of rubbish. I'd like to personally
recommend
a
little reading from the U.S. Geological Survey for Mr. or Ms.
KC Wildmoon. This person has NO damn business writing about science
related issues for ANY publication other than the National
Inquirer, I'll tell you that much. Of all the
irresponsible things to post on a major news website! How many
people at CNN do you suppose
looked at this story at least once before it was posted... and
COMPLETELY missed this glaring falsehood?

Un-be-fricking-lievable.

By the way, if there are ANY of you out there who actually believe
we never walked on the Moon, don't even bother e-mailing me.
Seriously, there's enough blood coming out of my ears as it is for
me to have to debunk THAT load of bull too.

Now then, we'll be back late tonight (for Thursday's post) with new
DVD reviews, including a number by Bits
columnist Barrie Maxwell.

See you then!

(EARLY UPDATE - 6/22/05 - 10 AM PDT)

We'll be back later with more, but I wanted to check in with a
quick update on a couple of things.

First of all, we expect Universal to FINALLY announce its Battlestar
Galactica: Season One very soon. We're trying to get more
information for you from the studio, but Best Buy.com MAY have
leaked the street date. The site has something listed
in
its database as Battlestar Galactica (Uk Version) set
for a 7/26 release, although when you try to get more details on the
title, the page no longer exists. It could just be an error, but the
date is about the right time frame, given the debut of Season
Two on SciFi on 7/15.

Also today, consider this Rumor Mill
worthy, but we've heard from industry sources that Paramount has
finally begun preparing their long-awaited DVD release of David
Lynch's Twin Peaks: Season Two.
There's a LOT of work involved, however, so don't expect it to hit
store shelves until sometime next year.

Stay tuned...

6/21/05

Okay... server troubles be damned. Let's jump right back into the
fire, shall we?

First of all today, we're pleased to announce that The
Digital Bits is returning to San Diego Comic-Con next
month with DVD Producers 2005!
Our annual panel discussion has been a big hit in past years, and
we're working to make this year's event no exception. The panel will
be held on Thursday, July 14th from Noon to 1:30 PM PDT, in room
6CDEF of the San Diego Convention Center. Todd and I will moderate
the event, as always, and our panelists will include DVD producers
Charles de Lauzirika (Alien
Quadrilogy, Spider-Man 2,
Kingdom of Heaven, Domino),
JM Kenny (Midnight
Cowboy: 35th Anniversary Edition, Stealth,
An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening
Harder, Mallrats 10th
Anniversary Edition) and Robert
Meyer Burnett (X-Men 1.5,
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe, Superman
and director of Free Enterprise),
who may offer previews their forthcoming DVD releases. We expect to
announce additional panelists here at The
Bits in the next few weeks. We're going to have audience
Q&A with the panelists, so be sure to bring all your DVD-related
questions. We're also going to be giving away a DVD player and a
number of great special edition discs after the discussion. It's
going to be a lot of fun, so we hope you can make plans to join us!

Now then... time for some new DVD announcements. Universal has
officially unveiled the DVD release of The
Interpreter on 10/4 (SRP $29.98). Separate full frame and
anamorphic widescreen versions will be available, each with Dolby
Digital 5.1 audio. Extras on each will include audio commentary with
director Sydney Pollack, an alternate ending, deleted scenes and 4
featurettes (Sydney Pollack at Work: From
Concept to Cutting Room, Interpreting
Pan & Scan vs. Widescreen, The
Ultimate Movie Set: The United Nations and A
Day in the Life of Real Interpreters).

Also newly announced by Universal for 9/27 are an American
Pie: 3-Movie Pie Pack (in both full frame and anamorphic
widescreen - SRP $29.98) featuring American
Pie, American Pie 2
and American Wedding, a Beethoven
Pooch Pack (SRP $26.98), featuring Beethoven,
Beethoven's 2nd, Beethoven's
3rd, Beethoven's 4th
and Beethoven's 5th, a 2-pack
of The Land Before Time Volume III: The
Time of the Great Giving and The
Land Before Time Volume IV: Journey Through the Mists
(SRP $19.98) and the animated Seuss
Celebration (SRP $26.98), featuring Dr.
Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, Dr.
Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham and Other Favorites, Dr.
Seuss: The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat, Dr.
Seuss: Grinch Night, Dr.
Seuss: The Hoober-Bloob Highway, Dr.
Seuss: The Lorax and Dr.
Seuss: Pontoffel Pock and His Magic Piano.

Warner has revealed a new slate of TV series "best of"
compilation DVDs for 9/27, including Cheyenne:
TV Favorites, Chico and the
Man: TV Favorites, Dukes of
Hazzard: TV Favorites, F
Troop: TV Favorites and Maverick:
TV Favorites. No doubt the studio is testing the waters
with these releases, to gauge the popularity of some of these shows
on disc. You can likely expect eventual complete season releases of
the series that sell well.

Warner has also announced The Outsiders:
The Complete Novel - Special Edition for 9/20 (SRP
$26.99). The 2-disc set will include a new longer version of the
film in anamorphic widescreen (with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio),
featuring footage newly-restored by director Francis Ford Coppola
himself. Some 22 minutes of footage has been added, including a new
beginning and ending "more true to the
book." Extras are expected to include 10 minutes of
additional deleted scenes (available separately), a new introduction
and audio commentary by Coppola, a new introduction and audio
commentary by the actors (including Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C.
Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe and Diane Lane), the Staying
Gold and On Location with S.E.
Hinton documentaries, 3 featurettes (The
Outsiders on Location, NBC
Today Show: Fresno Book to Film and Hollywood
Close-Up: The Premiere at Lonestar-Fresno), a look at the
casting of the film with never-before-seen screen test and audition
footage, and the film's 1983 and 2005 theatrical trailers. You'll
find the cover art below.

And Sony has revealed Faith of My
Fathers, Walk on Water,
a Major Dundee: Extended Cut
and Married with Children: The Complete
Fourth Season for release on 8/30.

In other news, we've just learned from writer/director John
Harrison that Synapse
Films is working on a DVD special edition of the "lost"
1978 horror classic, Effects,
which was directed by Dusty Nelson (and which Harrison produced).
The film features the talents of Joe Pilato, Tom Savini and many
other George Romero alumni. This will mark Effects'
first-ever release on ANY home video format. The DVD will include a
new high definition transfer of the restored film, audio commentary
by Nelson, Harrison and Pasquale Buba, Michael Felsher's hour-long
After Effects documentary
about independent filmmaking in Pittsburgh, a pair of first-time
films by Nelson and Harrison (UBU
and Beastie), the Time
to Rofflerize spoof musical clip, a photo gallery and
more. The DVD is tentatively set to street on 10/25, just in time
for Halloween. La La Land Records will release the film's soundtrack
on CD the same day. By the way, for you new readers, be sure to
check out
our
2002 interview with Harrison on Frank
Herbert's Dune and
our
2001 feature with Harrison and George Romero on Tales
from the Darkside.

Also today, for you PSP fans, Anchor Bay has announced that they'll
begin releasing movies on the UMD for PSP format on 8/23 (see
story
at Home Media Retailing). The
company's first wave of titles will include Halloween,
Evil Dead, Time
Bandits, Blood the Last
Vampire, Ghost in the Shell
and Ninja Scroll. Each will
SRP for $19.98. Our
UMD
Movies for PSP Release List has been updated accordingly.

Around the Net this morning...
Gamespot
and DVD
Recordable.org are reporting (based on a Nikkei
Net story) that Sony and Toshiba may restart negotiations
to head off the looming Blu-ray Disc/HD-DVD format war. Similar
talks fell apart last month when both sides took hard-line
positions. Following shareholder meetings scheduled for the next
week or so however, both companies will see a change of management
which may allow for the possibility of a compromise to be reached
(MAY being the operative word). Don't get your hopes up, but you can
be sure that we'll keep you up to date on any developments.

Also this morning, our friends Michael Coate and Bill Kallay over
at From Script to DVD have
created
a
list of theaters showing the new Batman
film in IMAX format. Be sure to check it out.

Here at The Bits today, we've
updated some of the DVD format stats we track (above),
including the
CEA
DVD Player Sales chart. 215,038 players were shipped to
U.S. retailers in the week ending 5/20, with another 574,940 for the
week ending 5/27. That takes the monthly total for May to 1,184,490.
Add to that another 307,283 for the first week of June (ending 6/3),
and the U.S. Format Total to Date now sits at a whopping 90,427,143
players!

We'll leave you this morning with the cover art for Warner's The
Outsiders: The Complete Novel - Special Edition, Fox's
Millennium: The Complete Third Season
(9/6) and final art for Disney's The
Muppet Show: Season One - Special Edition (8/9)...

Stay tuned!

6/20/05

No... the staff of The Digital Bits
hasn't gone AWOL, been trampled by stampeding elephants OR abducted
by aliens. However, you're probably wondering what's been up the
last few days, as we missed our regular posts Friday and today, and
our domain names were acting a little strange over the weekend.

The cause of these issues is that we've moved to a new server - one
that should be a little faster for you, and that will serve our
needs better. Of course, the transfer wasn't entirely glitch free,
in that we haven't been able to log in to post updates until now.
Thankfully, however, these wrinkles have been ironed out, and we're
back to smooth operation around here. We'll return in the morning to
catch you all up on the DVD news of the last few days, and hopefully
post some long-overdue reviews as well.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime, and we'll see you
tomorrow. Best 'til then!

6/16/05

Afternoon, folks. Hope your Thursday's treating you all well.

Matt, Sarah and I took a little time out yesterday to catch a late
matinee of Christopher Nolan's new Batman
Begins. We all enjoyed the film. It's significantly
better than I was expecting, definitely an improvement on the
previous live-action films. The film is dark and atmospheric, and I
particularly liked the build up of the Bruce Wayne character. You
see how he becomes the Dark Knight, and it's entirely believable. As
all the pieces of his character fall into place, you're never asked
to make a leap of logic that isn't easy to make. Christian Bale is
quite good as the title character, while Michael Caine and Morgan
Freeman are welcome indeed as Alfred and a Wayne Enterprises
scientist. It's great to see Gary Oldman playing a good guy for a
change. I really liked him as Police Sergeant Gordon (it's nice to
know that as the franchise continues, we'll see Gordon move up in
the ranks). Even Liam Neeson and Rutger Hauer contribute admirably
to the film. Better still, the mood, look and production design is
pitch perfect.

Batman Begins, however, is
nowhere near perfect. For one thing, it could easily be trimmed by
15 or 20 minutes and you'd never miss them. The major bit of
miscasting is Katie Holmes, who brings nothing unique to her role.
And as good as the first half of the film is, it gets a little bit
too paint-by-numbers in the second half. The build-up here gives
this Batman its own unique
style, but the action later is pretty pedestrian. There's also a bit
of a twist in the last act that's entirely too predictable. Still,
Scarecrow is nicely creepy and the final act does set up the
potential emergence of a number of the signature villains in future
sequels, including (in a nifty little touch) The Joker. That, I
think, will be the real test for this remodeled franchise. Okay, I
buy the new Batman. The character works, and Bale is more than
capable of filling out the cowl and cape. But how in the hell will
the filmmakers make me forget Jack Nicholson as Joker? I'll give
them credit though... they're doing pretty damn good with Gotham so
far. I'm certainly willing to take another ride in the Tumbler to
see what's around the next corner. I'll give this film a solid B.

Okay... on to DVD news today. We have official details for you on
HBO's updated From the Earth to the Moon:
The Signature Edition (due 9/20 - SRP $99.98). The 5-disc
set will include all 10 episodes in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby
Digital 5.1 EX audio. The extras look to be mostly the same as what
was available on the original DVD release (although some of contents
that were previously ROM based MAY now be available on the set-top
side). The extras will include the HBO
First Look behind-the-scenes featurette, a special
effects featurette, information on Famous
Astronomers, History of the
Moon and The Space Race
timelines, video of President Kennedy's historic speech to Congress
on May 25, 1961, an interactive tour of the solar system and other
space phenomena, promotional trailers for the mini-series and more.
There MAY be a bit of new material as well - we should know more
soon.

Here's the cover art for that, along with Warner and the BBC's Michael
Palin: Himalaya (7/19) and Sony's now shorter The
Blue and the Gray: Recut (7/26)...

Stay tuned...

(LATE UPDATE - 6/15/05 - 3:30 PM PDT)

Some good news for you horror fans has just arrived - Warner's
announced today a 5-disc Val Lewton
Horror Collection box set for release on 10/4 (SRP
$59.92). The box set will contain 9 classic films, including The
Cat People/Curse of the Cat People, I
Walked With a Zombie/Body Snatcher, Isle
of the Dead/Bedlam, The
Leopard Man/The Ghost Ship and The
Seventh Victim. Of these 5 discs, The
Cat People/Curse of the Cat People, I
Walked With a Zombie/Body Snatcher and Isle
of the Dead/Bedlam will also be available separately (for
$19.97 each). The rest of the films will be exclusive to the box
set. Extras will include audio commentary with Greg Mank and Simone
Simon on Cat People and Curse
of the Cat People, commentary with Kim Newman and Steve
Jones on I Walked With a Zombie,
commentary with Steve Haberman and Robert Wise on The
Body Snatcher, commentary with Tom Weaver on Bedlam
and commentary with Steve Haberman on The
Seventh Victim, along with the Shadows
in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy documentary (on the
life and films of the famous RKO Radio Pictures producer - the
documentary is exclusive to the box set) and theatrical trailers.

Also coming on 10/4 from Warner are Demon
Seed, Dracula A.D. 1972,
Night of the Lepus, Private
Parts and A Stranger Is
Watching.

On the TV DVD front, Warner has announced the release of Smallville:
The Complete Fourth Season for 9/13 (SRP $59.98). Video
will be anamorphic widescreen, with audio in Dolby Digital 2.0
Surround. Extras will include unaired scenes, audio commentary on 3
episodes by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and members of the cast and 2
featurettes (Being Lois Lane
and Behind Closed Doors: Inside the
Writers Room - The Process of Writing an Episode).

Also in TV DVD news, Universal has announced Las
Vegas: Season Two for release on 9/13 (SRP $59.98). The
3-disc set will include 24 episodes (in anamorphic widescreen video
with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio) featuring footage "too hot for
network TV", along with gag reels from seasons 1 & 2 and
the VIP-Only Access
featurette.

Here's cover art for the above-mentioned The
Val Lewton Horror Collection, The
Cat People/Curse of the Cat People and Smallville:
The Complete Fourth Season...

Stay tuned...

(EARLY UPDATE -
6/15/05 - 12:01 AM PDT)

We've got a bit of news that's going to make you Chris Carter fans
happy this morning. 20th Century Fox has just officially announced
the DVD release of Millennium: The
Complete Third Season for 9/3 (SRP $59.98). The 6-disc
set will include all the episodes of the series' final season in
anamorphic widescreen video with Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround audio.
Extras will include audio commentary on The
Innocents by Lance Henrickson and Klea Scott, audio
commentary on Collateral Damage
by Tom Wright, The X-Files'
Millennium episode (which
featured the character of Frank Black), and the End
Game: The Making of Millennium: Season 3 and Between
the Lines featurettes.

Also coming from Fox on 9/13 is The
Pretender: Season Two.

Also today comes word that a distributor called
indieBuyer.net
has accquired the U.S. release rights to the Eraserhead
and The Short Films of David Lynch
DVDs that had previously been exclusive to
DavidLynch.com.
Both DVDs will now be available in a single package box set, which
will include all of the extras that were on the original discs. The
new box set is currently slated to street on 7/5 for an SRP of
$75.86. It's about damn time these films got wide distribution on
DVD!

Just FYI, around the site this morning, we've updated a number of
the DVD format stats we track (above).

We'll have another update later today, but we'll leave you for now
with a look at more upcoming DVD cover artwork. Here's Anchor Bay's
The Greatest American Hero: Season 3
(8/2), Miramax's Chicago: The
Razzle-Dazzle Edition - Collector's Series (9/13), temp
art for Universal's The Bela Lugosi
Collection and The Hammer
Horror Collection (both 9/6), and Disney's forthcoming
Studio Ghibli animated titles, My
Neighbors the Yamadas and Pom
Poko (both 8/16)...

Stay tuned...

(LATE UPDATE - 6/14/05
- NOON PDT)

Wouldn't you know it? No sooner do I finally get to catch a few
hours of shut-eye, Universal goes and pulls The
Return of the Pink Panther after all. The title was still
listed in the studio's release schedule (for 7/26) as of last night,
and it seemed that it was going to stay there. But a day after I go
and post the artwork and confirmation of the 7/26 date, it's now
been yanked (as
we originally suspect it would be), no doubt to reappear again
in early 2006 when MGM relaunches their own recently-delayed Pink
Panther promotion. Hey Uni... you guys might send a fella
an e-mail next time, huh?

On the DVD news front this morning, Warner has officially announced
their animated Polar Express
for 11/22 (SRP $29.95). The 2-disc set will include the film in
anamorphic widescreen video (a full frame version will also be
available) with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, the never-before-seen Smokey
and Steamer song, 5 featurettes (including You
Look Familiar: The Many Polar Faces of Tom Hanks, A
Genuine Ticket to Ride, True
Inspirations: An Author's Adventure, Behind
the Scenes of Believe and Meet
the Snow Angels: The Moviemakers' Christmas Memories),
video of a Josh Groban performance of Believe
at the Greek Theatre, a Polar Express
Challenge game, a playable THQ PC game demo (DVD-ROM) and
the film's theatrical trailer. You'll find the cover art below.

We've confirmed that Universal will still release The
Return of the Pink Panther on 7/26 as expected, despite
the recently-announced delay of those MGM Pink
Panther titles that had been set to street the same day.

We've also learned that Universal's To
Kill a Mockingbird: Special Edition (9/6) will be a "Legacy
Series" release, and that it will include a replica of the
film's script, complete with original notes from star Gregory Peck.

In other news, 20th Century Fox has announced more titles for
release on 9/6, including The House on
Haunted Hill (1958), The
Innocents, Mr. Hobbs Takes a
Vacation, Satisfaction,
Sherlock Holmes: Prelude to Murder
(1946), Somewhere in the Night,
Terror by Night (1946), Whirlpool,
Almost You, The
Chase (1994), House on 92nd
Street, Goosebumps: Chillogy,
Goosebumps: Scary House and
Goosebumps: The Ghost Next Door.

By the way, Fox has also officially announced a pair of titles
we
revealed in The Rumor Mill the other day - The
Fly: Special Edition and The
Fly II: Special Edition. Look for those on 9/27.

New Line has announced some new titles too, including Campfire
Tales, Nature of the Beast
and The Hidden/The Hidden II
double-feature disc. You'll find those in stores on 8/30.

HBO has revealed that they're preparing a newly-updated DVD box set
of Tom Hanks' From the Earth to the Moon
mini-series for release on 9/20 (SRP $99.98). The original box was
one of HBO's first ever DVD releases, and it was presented in the
series' full frame aspect ratio. For the new 5-disc set, you'll get
all the episodes in anamorphic widescreen video, complete with both
Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 audio. Extras will include a mix of new
and old bonus material. We'll post the complete spec list when it's
available. No doubt this updated set is connected to HBO's planned
HD-DVD release of the mini-series due later in 2005 (and
first announced back in January). Since the episodes had to be
remastered in high-definition anamorphic widescreen for HD-DVD, why
not reissue them in regular DVD anamorphic widescreen too?

Also today,
Home
Media Retailing is reporting that Warner is currently
planning an All the President's Men: 30th
Anniversary Edition for release in 2006. No doubt they're
hoping to cash in on
the
recent revelation of the real identity of reporter Bob
Woodward's infamous 'Deep Throat' source.

Finally this morning, if you just can't stop buying VHS tapes yet,
you'll be shocked and saddened to hear that Wal-Mart is officially
going to stop selling the things in 2006 (see
this report at CNN/Money) to make more room on its
store shelves for DVDs. It's about damned time, if you ask us.

By the way, for those of you who have been waiting patiently, we've
announced
the winners of last week's Contests
here at The Bits.

We'll leave you this morning with more new cover art. Here's
Warner's The Polar Express,
Universal's The Return of the Pink
Panther and Fox's Mr. Hobbs
Takes a Vacation...

Stay tuned...

6/13/05

Good afternoon, everyone! I trust you all had a great weekend. I
spent mine celebrating my wife Sarah's birthday (Happy B-Day, babe!)
and taking in a helluva good movie... Paul Haggis's Crash.
It's absolutely outstanding - probably the best film I've seen yet
this year. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. We also
found time for a nice dinner with Mr. TAP
himself, Matt Rowe, and his wife Debbie. Nothing like time spent
with good friends, is there?

We've got a few reviews to post today, so we'll be back later with
some of those. But first, I wanted to check in with some cool DVD
release info, both official and unofficial, and some new
Contests
too.

First up, we've got some GREAT new information from our sources in
The
Rumor Mill today on planned street dates for a number of
MAJOR upcomig releases. Think Kingdom of
Heaven, Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy and House of Wax,
and you're on the right track. We've also got information on
Paramount's planned R1 Star Trek
release slate through the end of 2005, and we have news on
Universal's long awaited Battlestar
Galactica: Season One as well. Don't miss it!

In other news, 20th Century Fox has announced the DVD release of
Harry & Tonto and Career
Girls for 9/6. Fox has also revealed that it will release
the animated Robots on DVD and
UMD (for PSP) on 9/20. Expect the DVD to be available in full frame
and anamorphic widescreen versions, each of which will include a new
4-minute, CGI short created just for the DVD release, an Xbox
multiplayer racing game featuring characters from the film,
interactive games, 3-D character biographies and The
Copperbottom Show (the original pitch to studio
executives). You'll find artwork for Robots
below.

Also today, Sony has announced the DVD release of Crusader,
Layer Cake: Special Edition,
Good Times: The Complete Fifth Season,
That's My Mama: The Complete First Season,
That's My Mama: The Complete Second
Season and What's Happening:
The Complete Third Season, all for 8/23. Layer
Cake and Snatch
will also street on UMD for PSP on 8/23.

And from MGM on 8/23, look for Beauty
Shop, Dust to Glory,
A World Apart, Four
Friends, I Love You, Don't
Touch Me!, Inserts,
Kissed, The
Killing of Sister George, Vincent
& Theo and Without You I'm
Nothing.

Man, I take one day off and look what happens? A TON of big
announcements. I've been feeling a little under the weather these
last couple of days due to allergies, but no matter. Let's get you
caught up, shall we?

Universal has checked in with word that they'll release The
Ring Two, Ringu 2
and a 4-disc Ringu Anthology of Terror
set on 8/23. Expect 3 different versions of The
Ring Two - a full frame PG-13 version and anamorphic
widescreen and full frame unrated versions (SRP $29.99 each). Ringu
2 will be available in an anamorphic widescreen unrated
version (SRP $29.99). The 4-disc Ringu
Anthology of Terror will include the original Ringu,
Rasen, Ringu
2 and Ringu 0, all
in anamorphic widescreen and featuring the original Japanese Dolby
Digital 5.1 audio (with English, French and Spanish subtitles).
There's no set SRP on the set. You'll find cover art for these
titles below.

We're just starting with Universal - on 9/6, look for The
Deer Hunter: Special Edition (SRP $26.98), a 2-disc set
featuring anamorphic widescreen video, Dolby Digital 5.1 audio,
audio commentary with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, video of the
acceptance of the Best Picture Award, the Anatomy
of a Scene featurette, deleted and extended scenes,
production notes and the film's original theatrical trailer.

Also on 9/6, you'll get The Sting:
Special Edition (SRP $26.98), a 2-disc set featuring
anamorphic widescreen video, Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio, The
Art of The Sting retrospective documentary, the film's
theatrical trailer and production notes.

Again on 9/6, Universal will street its To
Kill a Mockingbird: Special Edition (SRP $26.98), also a
2-disc set featuring 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen video, Dolby
Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mono audio, DTS 5.1 audio (no kidding), audio
commentary with director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan Pakula,
the Fearful Symmetry "making
of" documentary, the A Conversation
with Gregory Peck featurette, video of Peck's Academy
Award Best Actor acceptance speech, video of Peck receiving the
American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, a video excerpt
from an Academy tribute to Gregory Peck, the Scout
Remembers featurette and the film's theatrical trailer.
Very nice.

And for you horror film fans, Universal has slated The
Bela Lugosi Collection and The
Hammer Horror Collection for 9/6 as well.

The Bela Lugosi Collection
(SRP $26.98), is a single-disc, DVD-18 release containing the Lugosi
classics Murders in the Rue Morgue,
The Raven, The
Invisible Ray, Black Friday
and The Black Cat (1934) (all
in the original full frame video and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio)
along with some of the films' theatrical trailers.

And The Hammer Horror Collection
is a 2-disc (SRP $29.98) set containing Brides
of Dracula, The Curse of the
Werewolf, The Phantom of the
Opera, Night Creatures,
Paranoiac, Kiss
of the Vampire, Nightmare
and The Evil of Frankenstein
(all in anamorphic widescreen video with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
audio).

Now THAT is a nice little batch of titles for one studio to
announce, wouldn't you say? Just to spice it up a little more,
Universal has also announced the UMD/PSP titles American
Pie, The Bourne Identity
and Friday Night Lights for
release on 8/30 (SRP $19.98 each). We've updated our
UMD
for PSP Release List accordingly.

In other DVD release news today, we have word that New Line's Monster-In-Law
will street 8/30.

Buena Vista and Touchstone's A Lot Like
Love is set for release on 8/23 (SRP $29.99).

Paramount has officially set 9/20 as the street date for their Star
Trek: Enterprise - Season Three 7-disc set.
Click
here to see the cover art we posted a couple days ago (and
just scroll down a bit).

Also, 20th Century Fox has officially added A
Man Called Peter to its 9/6 slate. And if you're
interested in details on a couple of additional special editions Fox
is going to be releasing in September, you might want to check out
The
Rumor Mill today. Bring your fly-swatter...

Around the Net today,
Newsfactor
is reporting on the latest developments on the Blu-ray
Disc/HD-DVD front, specifically that a deal between the two groups
is now unlikely, and that the Toshiba group is now preparing to
launch their recordable HD-DVD discs.

Also,
Gamasutra
is reporting that Sony Computer Entertainment's Ken Kutaragi,
the so-called "father of the PlayStation," is now saying
that he's pessimistic that there will be any kind of Blu-ray
Disc/HD-DVD deal.

George Bennett's also checked in over there with a review of
Rhino's
Brian
Wilson Presents SMiLE on DVD. Many considered the album
version of SMiLE one of the
best releases of 2004, so be sure to check it out.

We'll leave you with some new cover art today. Here's Universal's
The Ring Two, Ringu
2 and Ringu Anthology of
Terror...

Now then... I may check back in later this afternoon with some
long-awaited DVD reviews. If not, I'll be sure to post them first
thing on Monday. Have a great weekend!